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Comments
You did good with your deal. I got the same car (even the color combo!) here in NCal for $30,900 incl dest and protection package. My credit union gave me a 2.99 % for 48 months or 3.99 % for 60 months.
I'm looking for an automatic w/nav in Anthracite Metallic. I got an internet quote from this dealer of $33,075 + dest., taxes & DMV fees which I think is pretty good.
In the meantime, I requested quotes through Acura's website and carsdirect.com. I've gotten responses from only 2 dealers so far. The first one has sent 3 e-mails to me without ever giving me a price. Needless to say I won't be doing business with them.
Second dealer quoted $34,650 + fees. Quite a difference. When I questioned his low discount, he said he could give me a lot off a non-nav. If nav's are in such high demand, why don't they simply produce more of them?
Where did you buy in nor california for $30,900 inc dest and protection?
e-mail me at purnams@comcast.net if you don't want to post publically.
thanks
How did you start with the price $33,995? $35,195 is MSRP w/auto/nav/destination.
I approached it like this. I told the sales guy I was looking at all the "usual suspects" in this class (TL, G35, S60, A4, 3-Series) but that the TL was at the top of my list. I said if I could get the deal I was looking for today, that I would forego even looking at the other cars and buy on the spot (I had already test driven the G35 and S60 at that point, but they didn't know that :-). They asked what I was looking for and I said $2000 off MSRP. I knew I wouldn't get there and was hoping to settle in around $1500 off MSRP (given what I've been reading on this group). Eventually they offered 1200 off and I jumped at it and moved on to the accessories and then the trade.
The accessories came in a bit higher than I wanted to pay and I had an idea of coming in around $2000-2100 for the accessories I wanted (MSRP - 10% + some for installation). We negotiated this to $2167, which was the claimed price to them including installation (admittedly at their inflated shop rates, but I thought I was doing pretty well at this point getting to the ballpark I was hoping to and didn't want to haggle over nickels and dimes and lose the deal altogether).
Then came the trade. They first offered $1500 for my car, which was a little low. The sales manager said he could probably get me another $500 for the trade, but would have to talk to the used car guy who wasn't in. I told them that at that point, I'd have to go home and think about it but that we were real close. The next day they called and offered me $2250 for the trade and I jumped at it.
All in all, I was pretty happy with where I wound up price wise. Combine that with the new 3.9 Acura financing deal and I'll be a real happy camper when I finally get the car.
BTW, I really enjoyed driving the G35. Of the cars I looked at, it was the most fun to drive. But the finish on the G35 was a little too plastic and cheap to me and the G35 is real wheel drive, unless you go with the AWD version. I'd probably wind up paying more for the G35 and I like the TL more overall anyway.
Thanks for the explanation. Now I understand. My best negotiated deal thus far is $34.2, but it includes the trunk tray, mud guards, winter floor mats, and wheel locks. So it sounds like we have similar deals.
Enjoy the car!
Do you pay tax on the delivery charge and the admin/tag/title fee?
I just bought a 04 TL from Rosenthal Acura. I might not get the best deal but I was pleased with the buying experience I had.
Here's the price they quotod me:
TL/6sp/nav: 300 off MSRP
TL/auto/nav: 500 off MSRP
TL/6sp/no nav: 800 off MSRP
TL/auto/no nav: 1500 off MSRP
I know those prices might not be the best, but they also gave me a good deal on my trade-in. I had a 2002 Accord/LX/5sp/with side air bag/24850 miles. I checked the KBB and Edmunds for the max condition the trade-in was 13K. I went to carmax and they offered me 12.5K on that. However, Rosenthal offered me 13K for that car, which was the best number I could find from the internet. (there was some minor scratches on the back bumper).
Anyway, thought I should share this with you. Ask for Mike Zheng and he was really helpful. He told me that they still had many TL/auto/no nav in stock and you should be able to get at least 1500 off MSRP.
By the way, I bought an 6sp with nav (abyss blue) and I paid only 300 off MSRP. However, considering the trade-in I got from them against what I got from Carmax, it might be more than 300.
Assuming you get the 6speed for $550/month (also unlikely) and you're worried about that $35 more/month in car payments, you can't afford the car, much less the thousands of dollars you'll have to fork out to pay off the bank on your maxima (i'd assume you bought it new with that 2.99% finance rate).
e-mail me at twjunior2000@yahoo.com if you don't want to post publicly
thanks
As for monthly payment, work the numbers. Depends on what interest rate you can get, but for the most part at these low interest rates, the monthly payment is more driven by the loan amount financed rather than the actuall interest rate. Use the rate calculators on this site to get an idea of how much of a loan you can bite off to get a $515 payment and see if that, combined with the payoff you're almost certainly going to have on the Maxima, works for you.
Or as mobofe mentions, look into leasing if you're going to be this fickle about how long you drive a car. But once you get into a lease, it will be more difficult to get out of it when the next car that strikes your fancy comes along while you're in the contract :-)
In short, unless you totally hate your Maxima, I'd stick with it for at least another year or two and get rid of it then.
Rosenthal offered me good pricing on e-mail vs. the other dealers here in DC. Just came from lunch in Tyson's and a new TL pulls in as I left.
Driver said he got his TL/Nav/6sp 500 under MSRP from Radley. So you probably did OK
The Town Hall has a feature where you can have your email address public in your profile so that folks who are LOGGED IN and click on your name can find it. This keeps it hidden from the "bots" that troll easily accessible webpages looking for addresses, but lets other community members find it if you want them to be able to contact you.
I highly recommend that you make your address public in your profile if that's what you want to do and NEVER post it out in the open in plain text on any web page.
Hope this is helpful!
:-)
It would be really great if people would share their info here for all of the community to benefit. Thanks!!
I'm calling the VP (son of the now semi-retired original owner), who runs all their dealerships, to complain about this. I've referred 80+ deals to them since the '90s, so he'd better hear me out!
It can't be because she can't qualify with her 750 FICO! They say she has to pay the 4.9% APR. It isn't about the 1.0% spread: it's a matter of disrespect and bad faith!
Good luck.
With that said however, I don't know if I would never take any business back there again based on this one incident. I suspect it's fairly common practice. The dealerships aren't out to make any friends, they're trying to maximize their profit margins. They realize that most of the poor schmucks out there would just cave into the little things they try to pull over on you. But once they realize that you don't fall into the "poor [non-permissible content removed]" category on a given item, then they'll usually start to backpedal since they would rather not lose a paying customer. So you need to take the entire experience into account, not just a single part of it to determine if you would do business with them again. But I would definitely express my displeasure in no uncertain terms.
I'm in the middle of negotiating the final terms on my new TL and I'm getting yanked around a little bit about the inclusion of car mats and a trunk tray after we already had a deal that included them. Yeah, it ticks me off a little bit, but overall I was pleased with the way the whole process went, so I'm happy with the dealership so far and would take future business back to them (so far...I haven't actually closed the deal yet :-)
Actually, getting financed through the dealer almost always improves your chances of getting a better deal. That's because they get kickbacks from lenders.
As far as trade-in, I also recommend Carmax. Sold my 2003 TL-S to them couple of weeks ago. Got a great deal and it couldn't be easier.
It depends on whether the new RL appeals to me. There is a high probability that I'll take an anthracite TL in a couple of months. And keep my '96 RL as a spare set of wheels. I'll keep this incident in mind and remind them of it when working my own deal.
My first choice was the green, but it doesn't come with ebony interior. I like the ebony interior the best, so that limits the exterior choices I can choose from.
Should I even be thinking about going to an alternate color at this point or should I stick to my guns? From the posts on this board, the anthracite/ebony combination does seem to be a popular choice. I'm in New England (MA to be exact, dealer is in Rhode Island). Should I seek out another dealer who might search a little harder? I tried going over to the Montclair site and searching their inventory, but they don't let you get to that level of detail in searching.
Just wondering what others think...thanks.
It took the dealer 6 weeks to locate my blk/blk '95 Legend LS Coupe 6-speed.
I (like you) only want the Ebony interior, so when I got my '03 TL-S w/nav, it really narrowed the color choices.
If you have time and money (b/c you'll probably get a better deal taking something off their lot) to shop around, I'd say take the time to source for that combo.
With regards to other combos - i think black on black is just too dark, silver is out of the question as it looks too much like a honda civic on the road:); interior wise, i'd much prefer the modern alumninum/carbon trim than the wood (which imho, looks cheesy).
acurapeabody/lewisautos in VT might be people to deal with - bought mine from the latter but both of them were decent enough not to open the conversation with, "yeah, these cars only go for MSRP".
I've already negotiated a deal for the TL (see my post a few pages back from a couple of days ago). I'm just going back and forth over whether to compromise on the color combo. I don't need the car asap, so I can afford to wait. The ebony interior is almost non-negotiable in my mind so that limits my exterior color choices. The quartz is nice, but I like the look of the all black with the carbon trim that much better. I totally agree with you on the cheeziness of the "wood" finish in the lighter interiors. It's a shame they don't offer the green with the ebony interior, cause I might go with that. Black/black is out (don't want the hassle of another black car), agree with you as well on the look of the silver. I think that just leaves me with the red and "desert mist".
Ahh....decisions, decisions.